Tag Archives: nationals

Two Tigers outfielders, Tori Hunter and Austin Jackson lead the MLB with 24 hits each.

Braves OF, Justin Upton leads the MLB with 8 home runs. He didn’t hit his first home run of the season in 2012, until April 23. It took him 365 plate appearances and until July 20, to hit his eighth home run in 2012. He currently sits at 57 PA for the 2013 season.

Mets catcher, John Buck is doing his best to try to keep prospect Travis d’Arnaud in the minors. Buck is tied for MLB lead with 19 runs batted in. He had 18 RBI last season through June 26. So in terms of batting runners home he is about 41 games ahead of his 2012 pace in Miami. Buck also already has 6 home runs, a plateau he did not reach until June 24 last season.

Reds 1B, Joey Votto has walked in 1/3 of his 63 plate appearances in 2013. Votto did not qualify for the batting title in 2012 due to injuries, but among players with at least 450 PA in 2012 Joey Votto led the MLB with a 19.3 percent walk rate.

Starlin Castro has had 58 plate appearances in 2013 and walked ZERO times.

Braves 3B, Chris Johnson leads the MLB with a .500 BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play). Braves OF, Jason Heyward has the second worst BABIP among qualified players sitting at .091.

Two players in the MLB currently have a .500 On-base percentage, or better. They are Joey Voto with a .556 OBP and Lance Berkman with a .500 OBP.

The best fielder in the MLB thus far has been Matt Dominguez according to the fielding leaderboard on Fangraphs. For what it’s worth, I will say that defensive sabermetrics are something I do not completely buy into. However it is hard to argue against the fact that the same leader board rates Ryan Zimmerman and Shin-Soo Choo as the worst two fielders in the majors thus far in 2013.

Speaking of Reds outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, he has been hit by seven pitches already in 2013. No team, other than Choo’s team the Reds, has been hit more than seven times as a whole.

Royals 2B Chris Getz, has seen the highest percentage of pitches being fastballs, 76.1 percent, in the MLB. Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez, has seen the lowest percentage of pitches being fastballs, 39.9 percent, in the MLB.

Reds 1B Joey Votto, has swung the bat on pitches outside of the zone 13 percent of the time, the lowest rate in the MLB. Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval, has swung at 46.9 percent of pitches outside the zone, the highest rate in the MLB. Overall Sandoval is swinging the bat at 60.6 percent of the pitches he has seen, also the highest rate in the MLB. Mets OF Lucas Duda, beats Voto here, in terms of swinging at the least percentage of pitches seen – 29.9 percent.

Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons and Brewers OF Carlos Gomez each have been in a 0-1 count at the highest rate in the MLB, each seeing a first pitch strike 76.1 percent of the time.

Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez has a 19.7 percent swinging strike percentage to lead the MLB. And maybe the statistic that sticks out to me most in this whole post is the fact that in 51 plate appearances in 2013 Marlins 3B, Placido Polanco, has a swinging strike percentage of 0.0 percent, according to Fangraphs. This is just phenomenal bat control, and even though it really sticks out to me I am going to trust Fangraphs is right, like usual. I mean that is just crazy to think about, he has seen 176 pitches in 2013 against some of the best pitchers on the planet and he has not swung and missed at any of those pitches.

Diamondbacks RHP Ian Kennedy has a 16.7% walk percentage. He has a .053 batting average, but a .229 on-base percentage. Kennedy only swings the bat 27.6% of the time as well.

Cubs RHP Matt Garza has struck out in 67.6% of his 2012 plate appearances.

Reds RHP Mike Leake and Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg lead MLB pitchers with a 0.8 Fangraphs WAR at the plate. Strasburg also leads MLB pitchers with his .782 OPS. Leake has also seen the fewest percentage of fastballs, 55.3%, as a batting pitcher.

Catchers(Minimum 350 Plate Appearances)White Sox A.J. Pierzynski has the most home runs among catchers. Yadier Molina has 11 stolen bases to lead catchers. He has never had more than 9 stolen bases in a season before.

Misc.
Blue Jays Edwin Encarnacion currently has a 3.8 Fangraphs WAR. Encarnacion had a 3.1 WAR from 2009-2011. His .951 OPS in 2012 is also a great leap forward from his career .812 OPS.

Indians RHP Vinnie Pestano leads MLB relievers in holds with 32.

Reds LHP Aroldis Chapman leads the MLB averaging 16.26 K/9. Cubs RHP Carlos Marmol is averaging 8.01 BB/9, the highest rate among all relievers.
Braves RHP Craig Kimbrel is striking out almost half of all the batters he has faced at 49.1%.